“Tell us something we don’t know,” Paterson said on a WCBS news program this morning, referring to DiNapoil’s report yesterday that the state relies too heavily on gimmicks to deflect the budget deficit.

The governor then said the state needs a comptroller and Legislature to “put together a plan” to balance the budget.

DiNapoli, on the steps of City Hall to receive the endorsement of the city Building and Construction Trades for his reelection bid, said he didn’t hear Paterson’s radio remarks.

“We put this report out to make the point that these kind of budgetary actions, gimmicks if you will, that really serve to mask the enormity of the fiscal problems that we’re facing, certainly have been around for a long time, but we’ve seen an accelerated reliance on them in recent times,” DiNapoli said.

“We need to put a budget in place this year that will avoid the reliance on gimmicks that has contributed to our getting into the position that we’re in right now.”

He also said he does not regret voting for any state budgets during his time in the Assembly – a point of criticism his Republican rival, Harry Wilson, has raised on the campaign trail.

“When you’re in the Legislature, an important part of the focus, for better or for worse, is on a deadline, on a budget deadline, on a session deadline,” he said.